Microsoft E3 Press Conference rundown

Microsoft promised games, games, games at its E3 global media briefing, and duly delivered. The company showcased an impressive, virtual wall-to-wall lineup of solid, if not stunning, new titles mostly destined for their upcoming Xbox One console, with a few Xbox 360 offerings thrown in for good measure.

Even with the announcement that the Xbox One would cost an eye-watering £429/$499/€499 when it goes on sale this November, Microsoft delivered a pretty strong opening to E3 2013. That was until Sony took to the stage a few hours later.

Here’s a full rundown of (almost) everything that made up the Microsoft press conference:

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - Powered by the stunning Fox Engine, the MGS series takes its tactical espionage into an open world for the first time, with Kiefer Sutherland taking over the role of Snake. (MGS 5 is coming to both Xbox One and the PlayStation 4).

A redesign for the Xbox 360 – Available straight away, the new 360 has styling similar to that of the Xbox One and is smaller and just as quiet as the previous model.

Xbox Live Gold members will get two free game downloads a month – Starting in July with Assassin’s Creed 2 and Halo 3. (Yes, it does sound just like PlayStation Plus.)

World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition – A purpose built version of Wargaming.net’s hugely popular WoT is coming to the 360 this summer. It’s free to play for all Gold subscribers.

Ryse: Son of Rome – Crytek’s Roman epic (originally built as an Xbox 360 Kinect game) has been redesigned as a third-person hack-and-slasher with more than it’s fair share cinematic pomp and quick time events.

Killer Instinct – One of the most longed for fighting games finally gets resurrected as an Xbox One exclusive.

Sunset Overdrive – Another Xbox One exclusive – and something of a coup for Microsoft as it comes from Insomniac Games no less who previously worked on the PlayStation only Ratchet and Clank and Resistance series – Sunset Overdrive is a colourful, cartoony, fast-paced, traversal-driven open world shooter that changes on a daily basis. Just a shame there was no actual gameplay shown or release date mentioned.

Forza Motorsport 5 – Forza 5 is doing away with conventional A.I. and replacing it with Drivatar, a system that learns how you play and then uses your driving persona to populate other players’ races when you’re not playing. The aim is to deliver opponents who display real human behaviour all of the time and allow your Drivatar to race for you when you’re away from you’re not playing Forza 5.

Minecraft – Is coming to Xbox One. With bigger maps and more multiplayer.

Project Spark – The Xbox One’s answer to LittleBigPlanet is a 3D world builder in which you can create cutom-built environments, scenarios and games and then share them with the community who can then redesign them as they see fit.

Twitch built in to Xbox One – Allowing you not only to record , edit and upload your gaming videos to Xbox Live, but also to broadcast your gameplay live.

Microsoft Points to be replaced by real money.

Crimson Dragon – The spiritual succor to Panzer Dragoon is an Xbox One exclusive.

Dead Rising 3 – The third instalment of Capcom’s open world zombie survival game is yet another Xbox One exclusive. Set in the Californian city of Los Perdidos and with new a hero, Nick Ramos, it looks to be setting a darker tone than its irreverent predecessors.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – The final part of CD Projekt Red’s dark, mature and epic Witcher series will, for the first time, be a free roaming, open world adventure with hand crafted non-linear quests. Optional voice commands in combat for quick switching and spell casting and SmartGlass intergration are exclusive features for the Xbox One version of the game.

Battlefield 4 – Electronic Arts’ incredibly popular military first-person shooter will get it’s first map pack (Second Assault) first on Xbox One.

Below – A new Rougelike from Capy that’s the follow-up to Sword and Sworcery that’s exclusive to Xbox One.

Halo 5 - No gameplay, just a cinematic trailer for Master Chief’s next adventure that’s coming to Xbox One in 2014.

Titanfall – Microsoft’s parting shot was Respawn Studio’s Xbox One exlcusive massive (in multiple senses) multiplayer game Titanfall, complete with giant mechs piloted by players with jetpacks who can roam around the environments in or out of the giant machines.

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